Iowa State University Extension

Housing Mini-Grant Report, January-May 1999:
The Washington Housing Initiative (WHI) is a committee commissioned by Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG) to work closely with MidAmerica Housing Partnership (MHAP) to develop the moderate income housing project in northern Washington.

WEDG and MAHP applied for and received $443,000 from the federal government for home purchase buy downs and $208,000 from the state government to help purchase the land for the WHI. Initial plans call for 29 single-family units, (4 of which will be sold to Habitat for Humanity) 6 multi-family units, a playground area, and a community daycare facility to be developed.

WHI has 3 subcommittees: finance, construction, and education/marketing. The expenses budgeted for through the Housing Mini-Grant were for use by the education/marketing committee, of which Nancy Schmidt, CEED, Washington County, is a member.

Projects funded with the funds included hosting a 2nd annual Housing Summit in March of 1999. The targeted audience included land and housing developers, realtors, city government officials, and interested citizens. The program agenda was:

1) An update of current housing in Washington (including a new rental housing needs assessment, zoning ordinance updates, and Owner Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Grant progress report.

2) Current Lot Availability (Summary and progress of current building developments)

3) Infrastructure Analysis

4) WHI Purpose and Project Report

As a part of the development of the WEDG/MHAP moderate income housing project, publicity was needed to inform the public about the project, a housing survey was conducted to help identify potential home buyers, and a home buyers certification course was organized. Due to a hold-up in the land purchase, the home buyers seminar which was to have been held in July, has bee n re-scheduled for August. At that time, we will be better able to determine ho w many people will be interested home buyers.

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Program Accomplishments, 1998:
Problem/Need
Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG) created a Housing Committee in 1994 to perform a housing needs assessment for the Washington community. Its goal was to raise awareness in the community of needs for all types of housing.

A needs assessment was conducted in 1994 that looked at:
-- projected population increases for year 2000
-- potential labor force increases by the year 2000
-- availability and condition of current housing.
From this information, it was estimated that an additional 145 housing units would be needed by the year 2000.

Response

Surveys
To further update the survey information, an employee housing survey was conducted in January 1998 to determine the housing needs among manufacturing and health care employees, the two largest employment sectors in the community.  Findings from almost 500 surveys showed that 1/3 of the respondents would be looking for housing within the next two years, with the majority of those being moderately priced single family housing. Currently, many were renting because they could not afford the down payment to buy a home.  Respondents felt that there was a lack of housing and lots across the price spectrum.  Respondents also lacked information about new housing tax abatement and TIF programs.  Landowners around Washington were also surveyed to determine their interest in developing their land.

Housing Summit
A housing summit was held to share needs assessment and survey information with landowners, developers, contractors, bankers, real estate brokers, and city officials. Stu Huntington was a featured speaker to discuss the "how-to" to develop property for housing.  The City's new housing programs for tax abatement and TIF were also presented.  Other topics included review of the 1994 study, 1990 census information, financing development, local zoning and ordinances, and legal issues.  As a result of this Summit and other promotional efforts, there are now two new subdivisions being planned in the City.  As the City refines its TIF program, another Summit is being planned for the beginning of the Fall.

MAHP
The Housing Committee has worked hard with MAHP (Mid America Housing Partnership) to develop a new, affordable housing subdivision.  Since the Tornado that hit Washington on May 15, we have redoubled our efforts to find funding for a significant, 26 unit subdivision since a lot of housing was destroyed.  We are now ready to submit a proposal for some discretionary funding that will match other funds that we have already assembled. Our proposal includes funds for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter to purchase four lots to serve very low income families for the next several years.  MAHP has also encouraged the city to apply for additional owner-occupied housing rehabilitation grants to provide rehabilitation, down payment assistance, and homeowner education for first time home buyers who meet LMI income guidelines.

CDBG Rehabilitation/Downpayment Assistance
The Committee worked hard to encourage local contractors to bid on CDBG Rehabilitation projects.  We successfully got one contractor to start bidding and so far he has received two of the seven projects let to bid so far.  This is significant since local benefit is essential for the City Council to continue supporting future CDBG applications.

Tornado and Windstorm Damage
WEDG Staff and the Housing Committee volunteers were instrumental in coordinating with other agencies the recovery efforts as a result of the May 15 Tornado and the June 29 Windstorm, which combined, destroyed at least 85 housing units in the County.  The Tornado actually destroyed 31 rent subsidized apartments on the City's north side.  Staff have begun to work with developers to help them find financing to rebuild.  We also assisted in the data collection for a CDBG Imminent Threat grant application to IDED which was funded for $165,000 for housing rehabilitation.

New Staff Time
This Minigrant allowed the WEDG and its Housing Committee to increase available staff time for the Executive Director.  In light of the two disasters that hit Washington and Washington County (a tornado on May 15 and a windstorm on June 29), the additional staff time was invaluable.  The Director played a key roll in coordinating recovery efforts between the local governments and the State, and in setting up a local disaster relief fund to provide aid to affected households.

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Project Plans, 1998-99:
The WEDG Housing Committee plans on continuing many of the programs that we began this last Spring as well as some new activities.

Refined City TIF Program
The City is currently considering changes to the implementation of its Tax Increment Financing (TIF) housing programs.  WEDG Staff have become involved with researching how different communities in Iowa are implementing various parts of TIF.  Washington is most concerned about providing future TIF revenues up-front to developers and the 32 percent of TIF revenues that must be spent to benefit LMI households.

Housing Summit II
Interest in developing new housing is increasing as a result of the City's new programs.  As these programs are refined, WEDG will sponsor a follow-up Housing Summit this fall to disseminate new information as well as to give developers and land owners a chance to discuss how they think the program could work for them.  We want more audience participation at this event. We also hope to get additional mileage out of the employee survey that we conducted last Spring with Housing Minigrant funding.

Housing Marketing
Iowa City has recently identified that they will need 1,600 new housing units by the year 2000.  WEDG hopes to partner with developers starting new subdivisions to coordinate a marketing campaign in the surrounding area to help attract people to move to Washington.  Compared to the Iowa City metro area, housing is relatively affordable and is only a short commute.  For
families with two working parents, this would also give us a chance to increase the available workforce for local employers.

Promotion of Employer Assisted Housing Incentives
Fannie Mae has a program to match funds that an employer makes to their employee's downpayment on a house.  With a relatively tight and competitive labor force situation in Washington and Washington County, we hope to promote this program as a way to attract and retain employees in the community.  We will be targeting the large health care industry in the area first.

MAHP
WEDG will continue to work with the MAHP (Mid America Housing Partnership) on our project to develop an affordable housing subdivision.  We feel confident that we will receive funding in the next 30-60 days.

New Home Buyer's Workshop
As an element of the MAHP project, we will be conducting one or more workshops for potential new home buyers.  This is necessary to prepare many households who have never owned a home to become homeowners, including budgeting, time management, maintenance, etc.  We have talked with both ISU Extension and MAHP about providing this workshop.

Housing Needs Assessment and LHAP
The WEDG Housing Committee is beginning work to assist ECICOG to complete our Housing Needs Assessment.  After this is completed we will be making applications to IDED for LHAP, HOME, or CDBG funds for a variety of projects that are just starting to take shape around the community.

Staff Time
This large slate of projects can only happen if there are staff available to coordinate and carry it out.  This funding was crucial to allowing WEDG and its staff person to have the available time to advance the many housing issues facing the community, especially with the two disasters that hit the community.

I would like to thank you again for your past support and hope that you will consider the Washington Economic Development Group for additional funding through the ISUE Housing Minigrant program.  This small amount of funding has helped us to accomplish many things this last Spring.  In the short and the long term, persons of low to moderate income have been benefited.  With your additional support, we can continue to champion their needs in the community.

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Project Plan, 1998:
The Housing Committee has set a large agenda for itself in 1998. The Committee has begun a series of surveys of the different "pieces" of the housing puzzle. This fall, landowners in and around Washington were surveyed to determine if they were interested in developing their land, what for, and what (perceived) barriers existed to that development. Additional surveys of contractors/ developers, realtors, bankers, human service agencies, and employees of our larger businesses will also be done to help us determine where we need to focus our attention.

The East Central Iowa Council of Governments (ECICOG) will begin working on Washington County "Housing Needs Assessment" in January, 1998. Our surveys will provide additional and important information regarding housing needs and barriers in the community.

The Committee also plans to have a local housing summit(s) that brings together the people from the various housing sectors to discuss concerns, barriers, and to help make things happen across the spectrum of housing needs, including housing for "at-risk" families.

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Contact: Mary H. Yearns, Extension Housing Specialist, (yearns@iastate.edu)

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Revised: 29 June, 1999